Shawn Levy Talks THE TEN BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE Starring Amy Adams and HOME MOVIES; Says Tom McCarthy is Currently Writing Script for HOME MOVIES

Having successfully created a very popular franchise with the Night at the Museum films, director Shawn Levy is quickly becoming a prolific multitasker both as a director and a producer. Steve recently got the chance to sit down with the director for an exclusive interview regarding Real Steel’s visual effects Oscar nomination, but the extended conversation covered a number of upcoming projects. We already brought you the portion of the conversation dealing with Real Steel’s effects and the prospects of a sequel, as well as updates on the upcoming directorial efforts Interns, Fantastic Voyage, and Frankenstein. Throughout this week we’ll be bringing you different portions of the wide-ranging interview, and today we’ve got news regarding The Ten Best Days of My Life and Home Movies.

Levy confirmed that he’s developing an adaptation of Adena Halpern’s novel The Ten Best Days of My Life with Amy Adams attached to star as a woman who finds herself in heaven following an unfortunate car accident. Additionally, Levy talked about the time travel-esque pic Home Movies and revealed that Win Win writer-director Tom McCarthy is currently at work penning the script. Hit the jump for more on these two projects.

Levy revealed that he’s currently in development on Ten Best Days and Amy Adams is set to star:

“Ten Best Days is a book by Adena Halpern about a woman—Amy Adams, who is attached to star in it—who dies too young and has to kind of make the case for why she should get another chance. So it’s Defending Your Life, it’sHeaven Can Wait, but it’s with Amy as the star.”

Instead of trying get another chance on Earth, Halpern’s novel actually finds Adams’ character pleading her case for why she doesn’t deserve to be sent to the lower levels of heaven, so it sounds like Levy’s film may be taking the story in a different direction. Albert Brooks’ Defending Your Life covers similar ground, as the film also finds the protagonist in heaven pleading his case. It’s a fantastic pic with wonderful performances from Brooks and co-star Meryl Streep, and Levy seems to be aiming for a similar tone with Ten Best Days:

“If we can get 80% of that wit, that smart comedy [of Defending Your Life], that’ll be a big one.”

He revealed that he and Adams first cooked the project up on the set of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, but said they’re currently trying to get the right screenplay adaptation before they move forward.

Levy also provided an update on a film called Home Movies, which takes an interesting approach to the time travel genre:

“Home Movies is at DreamWorks and that really kind of asks the question, ‘What if you could do more than watch your home movies? What if you could re-experience them?’ Now obviously there are a lot of wish-fulfillment time travel movies out there; Jared Stern, who wrote the early drafts of Neighborhood Watch, he wrote the early drafts of Home Movies. Tom McCarthy, who wrote Win Win and The Visitor, he’s rewriting it for me.”

McCarthy is a surprising choice for a time travel story, but he definitely makes Home Movies one to look out for. In addition to the extraordinary Win Win and The Visitor, McCarthy is also responsible for writing The Station Agent and did some work on Pixar’s Up. We first learned about the scribe’s involvement last summer, but it appears he’s still working on the script. Levy is hoping to mesh McCarthy’s sensibilities with the big “Hollywood” concept:

“I think that’s gonna be a really interesting blend of a big, high-concept Hollywood-y idea, ‘What if you could re-live your home movies?’ but with Tom McCarthy’s voice and specificity of characters. So I’m waiting for him to give me a script, but that’s a contender.”

You can watch the portion of the interview where Levy talks about The Ten Best Days of My Life and Home Movies below, followed by a full transcript. Be sure to watch for more from Steve’s interview with Levy throughout the week.

Here’s the time index/transcription:

:05 Talks about The Ten Best Days of My Life “Ten Best Days is a book by Adena Halpern about a woman—Amy Adams, who is attached to star in it—who dies too young and has to kind of make the case for why she should get another chance. So it’s Defending Your Life, it’s Heaven Can Wait, but it’s with Amy as the star. The writer of the book is a friend of mine, and coincidentally Amy was reading it on the set of the second Night at the Museum. This is the weird thing, how deals get done, I’m like ‘Oh yeah you’re reading my friend’s book’ [she goes] ‘I love it!’ [I say] ‘Okay let’s do it!’ and so now we’re just trying to get the right screenplay adaptation of it. If we can get 80% of that wit, that smart comedy [of Defending Your Life], that’ll be a big one.”

:50 Talks about Home Movies “Home Movies is at DreamWorks and that really kind of asks the question, ‘What if you could do more than watch your home movies? What if you could re-experience them?’ Now obviously there are a lot of wish-fulfillment time-travel movies out there; Jared Stern, who wrote the early drafts of Neighborhood Watch, he wrote the early drafts of Home Movies. Tom McCarthy, who wrote Win Win and The Visitor, he’s rewriting it for me. So I think that’s gonna be a really interesting blend of a big, high-concept Hollywood-y idea, ‘What if you could re-live your home movies?’ but with Tom McCarthy’s voice and specificity of characters. So I’m waiting for him to give me a script, but that’s a contender.”